This week was week three of the new program "Player of the Day" on Jacob's team. Each day, coach picks a player for special recognition. Jacob told me before practice "Mom, this is my day. I am just going to run my guts out at practice and get player of the day..." And sure enough, after practice, he was chosen player of the day. For finally stepping up and hitting someone, and exploding off the line. He was in on a couple of tackles during scrimmage, and he creamed his opponent in tackling drills. It was a pleasure to watch him finally not on the receiving end of a beat down!

And in other news....just kidding. Ben pulled his shirt over his head, and Ted and I couldn't resist the Beavis and Butthead reference. You children of the 90's know what I'm talkin about! (I am the GREAT Cornholio!!!)

Football Season Starts

This is Jacob's second year of playing PAL football. August 12th and 13th was football camp, where the kids and coaches got to know each other, test their skills, and start getting into the pigskin groove. Jacob is no longer the littlest guy on the field, he is ready to be tough and work hard! Should be another great year, and we'll keep everyone posted on their season!

Practicing hand offs.
Holly enjoying the breeze, the colors, and the sounds.
Ben, imitating big brother.
Practicing the three point stance.

Happy Football, Er, I Mean Birthday!

This is Jake catching a pass whilst running patterns at football camp. He looks real good this year. He's grown a lot, and become much more aggressive and confident. More football camp pics to come.
Jake decides which beer, er, beverage to have.
Ben and Dad heartily approve of the appetizers.
Me and the kidlets at Red Robin.
So, I turned 29 (again) on the 12th, and here's what we did. We went to Jake's football camp, and then went to Red Robin for some treats! Jake and I got birthday sundaes and balloons. It was such a fun night! This picture wasn't that night, but I LOVE it! It just shows what is important in life: getting dogpiled on by your kids!

Birthday Boy!

So, Jacob is ten years old today. I was thinking back to the day he was born, and trying to remember how I felt about raising this new little boy. I remember thinking how ready I was. I was wrong. You are never ever ready for Jacob. He's a handful and a half. He is equally my greatest source of frustration and pride. He's funny as heck, he's a little turdbucket at times. He's incredibly smart, and creative, and thinks of the weirdest things sometimes! You know the spell from Harry Potter, Adava Kadavra? Yeah, out of the blue yesterday, he just jumps on his sister and says "Adavra KaTackle!!!" She wanted to be mad at him, but it was just so darn funny, we all couldn't help but laugh! We talked about going on a day trip this Friday to have s'mores and celebrate the last week of summer vacation. So what does Jacob do? He hops on GoogleEarth and plots out every reservoir in Western Idaho, narrows it down to three that looked to be nearby and had roads, and insisted we vote. He does stuff like that all the time. This week, he has been watching shark week on Discovery, classic NFL football games on ESPN, and get this: reading one of Ted's old Geology of Southeastern Idaho textbooks!

Dude?!?! What planet are you from, kid? I LOVE IT! As he grows, he fascinates me more and more each day, entertains me endlessly, and is such an awesome kid! So happy birthday buddy! I can't wait to see what the next year has in store for us!

It's The Summertime!

This is Grimes Creek, Idaho. It's actually a gold claim, which is pretty cool. But it is also a camping area, with a really great creek for the kids to splash in, so we took the kids up for an afternoon of summer fun in the sun.
It's about and hour outside of Boise toward the mountains, near Lucky Peak Reservoir. Let me tell you, we had a great time, even if it was a bit windy. Holly even did great in her car seat. Until the drive home, that is!

Holly's little feet in the water.

What a sweetie! Angelice really enjoyed playing in the sand, wading in the water, and helping me with Holly.

Ted and Ben playin in the water. We must explain the life jacket. Last month, Ted and the kids camped here with Grandma and Grandpa McPherson, and he stepped a little too far into the creek, fell face down, and began to float away. When we arrived at the creek, and the kids were wading into the water, Ben cried. He was terrified. Jacob thought ahead and brought a life jacket, which Ted put on him, and explained to him that it would keep him from drowning. He was still really tentative, and spent most of the day playing in the sand instead of the water. =(

In his timid state, Ben spotted a spider. He panicked! It was so funny, because he sees spiders at home all the time, and it doesn't even phase him! On the way home, when asked how he liked the creek, he said "Der was dis spider, and it was crawling, and stepping towards me!!!" Geesh, if this kid were any cuter, he'd cause a black hole of cuteness. I'm just sayin'.

Oh. And Holly spent the day drooling on the baby carrier. Sorry, ya'll. I cannot keep erasing myself out of our family memories because I am chubbier than I'd like to be. I wanted to remember this day, so you get chubby mom in the bathing suit picture!

I feel so blessed and happy to share such fun times with our family. The cool thing is that you can do that, and not spend a dime. The kids will not have every luxury they want growing up. But the will have these wonderful memories, and that...well, that's just priceless.

Summertime Continues...

I just had to share all these photos from our trip to Grimes Creek today: Ben caught a minnow! (Actually Ted caught it, but he made me take the picture as if Ben had caught it. I think he has small fish issues...)

Jacob snorkeled and dove all day. The water is full of iron pyrite (Fool's Gold) which is why it has that yellowish red color. The bottom is sandy with flecks of sparkly stuff in it. It's pretty cool!

When asked later what her favorite part of the trip was, Angelice replied "Lunch!"

Aw! Kisses for Holly!

Look at that! Mom even put on a bathing suit for this fun day! (Um. Not happening. Ever. Again.)

What a Load...

Actually five loads. And one in the washer, and one in the dryer. See what happens when you have a bunch of kids? Your life gets taken over by laundry. I finally got around to folding these today, they've been sitting and building for three days. As I was folding, I was realizing that these clothes sort of represent their owners. Jacob's jeans are ripped, and his socks all have holes in them. Most of them at this point are too small...That's because Jacob is quickly becoming a young man, growing so fast, and always getting into something rough. Angelice's clothes are stained, and yes, most of them too small. Again because she's growing into such a lovely young lady, with an interest in art. Thus the marker, watercolor, and melted crayon stains! Ben is just...wow. His clothes are all too small for him too! Maybe I should quit philosophizing (is that a word? And is it spelled right?) and get my butt to the store to buy my kids some clothes that fit!
In other news, Holly is just a rolling fool. Here she is about to take off.

And here she is mid roll...Almost! Keep going! (She's usually grunting and fussing at this point. And she smashes her face into the floor, it's so funny!)

And we did it!! Yeah! Holding her head up so proud, she usually looks around smiling, so happy to have a new perspective on the world!

Okay. Enough fun blogging for now. Back to the neverending laundry pile.